Republican Gunn recently moved Whittington, a Democrat from Schlater, off the Education Committee and made her vice chairwoman of the Tourism Committee. He gave Whittington's seat to Republican Rep. Charles Busby of Pascagoula.

The move has been seen as a plan to get a favorable vote on charter school legislation.

On Wednesday after a meeting at the state Capitol with other Democrats, Whittington asked Gunn to put her back on the committee to replace GOP Rep. Kevin McGee of Brandon, who resigned after an ethics issue involving his family and state contracts arose.

Gunn told The Clarion-Ledger that he had not seen Whittington's request and could not comment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons -- but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and lea...